APHA URGES Rx E-PEDIGREE TO CURB DRUG COUNTERFEITING

Published Online: Friday, September 1, 2006

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A congressional crackdown on pharmaceutical counterfeiters
should start with a switch to a "national electronic
pedigree" for prescription drugs, an official of the American
Pharmacists Association (APhA) told a House Government
Reform subcommittee.

The APhA has long supported the use of a "pedigree" or
documentation of the movement of medication through the
distribution chain to the pharmacy counter. The association
official warned Congress, however, that a paper-based pedigree
system for tracking pharmaceuticals "could negatively
impact the security of our drug-distribution system by creating
a false sense of security."

Warning that drug counterfeiters could forge paper Rx pedigrees
to create "a trail as fake as the product it accompanies,"
APhA Vice President Susan Winckler said that "an entity sophisticated
enough to counterfeit a [drug] product?would be equally
capable of counterfeiting a paper pedigree" for that drug.

Winckler urged Congress to lead a coordinated effort involving
pharmacists, drug manufacturers, and others to replace paper
documentation with a nationwide e-pedigree system for pharmaceuticals.
Significantly, however, she cautioned against allowing
states to set their own pedigree requirements for drugs, even if
those rules are more rigorous than the federal rules. A series of
inconsistent state requirements for pharmaceuticals would "create
loopholes that unscrupulous operators will exploit," Winckler
warned the subcommittee.